No further speed measures planned for north Tipperary village despite residents’ concerns
Calls for additional traffic-calming measures in north Tipperary were rejected after council speed surveys found no evidence of widespread speeding, despite ongoing complaints from local residents.
At the June meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, councillor Michael Smith raised the issue of speeding through Knock Village, outside Roscrea.
“In the village there, about seven or eight years ago, we put in a speed system on it and I know we’re doing readings out there, but it has been brought back to me again, it’s a busy area with the ball wall and with kids there.
“I think we need to start looking at other ideas to slow down the traffic in Knock,” Cllr Smith said.
In response, district engineer Thomas Duffy said that speed surveys have been carried out in the village, but the threshold for speed prevention measures was not met.
“We had the speed survey done to show that speeding wasn’t an issue. There are cars which are operating outside the speed limit, but the 85pc is the rule we apply. If it’s not happening 85pc of the time in the village, then we’re not inclined to carry out works.”
Under traffic engineering guidelines, speed-reduction measures are generally considered only when a significant proportion of vehicles exceed the posted limit.
“I can’t recall what the average speed through the village was, but it wasn’t leading us to carry out substantive works in the village,” Mr Duffy said.
Despite this, Cllr Smith said that a previous application for speed control measures was approved, and questioned how this could be the case if no speeding issues were present in the village.
“We got funding to put in what we have at present, so we’ve obviously identified that there was a problem for us to get funding to put in that.
“What the locals are saying now is that the problem is still going. So whatever data you have, there’s data there that you used to get funding to put in a controlled measure, but the controlled measure isn’t working,” Cllr Smith said.
Mr Duffy said the engineering team would look at the data gathered from the flashing speed signs again, but again stressed that a speed survey showed that no works needed to be carried out.
“What we might have done in the past might have been a knee-jerk reaction, now there’s a protocol that has to be followed where there’s steps that we must carry out before we carry out any speed reduction measures,” he added.
Cllr Smith said that this wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction, and that past data showed that there was a speed issue in the village, which hasn’t gone away, despite reduction measures.
“If anything happens there, it is not knee-jerk. It’s a dangerous junction. You’ve been put on warning about this, so I won’t accept to be told that this is a knee-jerk reaction,” he said.
Mr Duffy said that the original speed signs that were put up might have been an overly quick reaction, but added that they would take a look again and see if any more works were needed.